Alabama Coach Nick Saban is shown in the fourth quarter of the Western Kentucky game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. (The Birmingham News/ Mark Almond)
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TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – Here’s a new twist on an old line that originally was about Carnegie Hall.

Q. How do you get to Sun Life Stadium?

A. Practice, practice, practice.

The next BCS Championship Game will be staged in that arena in Miami Gardens, Fla., which is only 34 miles south of the Florida Atlantic campus in Boca Raton, Fla.

But Alabama is much closer. Even though it is 800 miles from South Florida, the Crimson Tide (3-0) is ranked No. 1 in the major college football polls.

It can stay there by routing Florida Atlantic in a 4 p.m. CDT game today at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Owls (1-2) are a 49½-point underdog.

The week began with Alabama coach Nick Saban preaching about practice.

“You guys ask me about practice – let me just tell you about practice,” Saban said Monday, responding to a question about freshman running back Kenyan Drake. “Guys don't do different things in the games than they do in practice. Almost everything that we messed up, we messed up in practice. Almost everything guys do well in the game, they did well in practice.

“So the guy makes good runs in practice, and he made a few good runs in the game. But that's the way it goes.”

And as the week went along, Saban was pleased that his players were practicing what he preached.

“You know, players have really responded well this week,” Saban said after practice Wednesday. “We've had better intensity, focus in practice.”

It was a stark contrast to two weeks ago when Saban barked at his players and then at his press conference, but to no avail. Three days later, he believes his team underachieved in a 35-0 victory over Western Kentucky.

The Tide rebounded with a 52-0 victory at Arkansas.

“Coach Saban actually called it an ‘I-Told-You-So game,’ because in practice the week of the Western Kentucky game, we didn’t have the energy that we usually play with,” sophomore left tackle Cyrus Kouandjio said. “So I think it was a good game, because it taught us that you practice as you play.”

In the past, “I-Told-You-So” games have been losses, such as a 2007 loss to Louisiana-Monroe, a Sugar Bowl loss to Utah at the end of the 2008 season, a 2010 loss to Auburn.

“It’s human nature to get motivated when something bad happens,” Saban said. “But why do you need one of these ‘I-told-you-so’ games? Just respond to doing what you need to do to be the best you can be and think about the things you need to do to get better.”

Saban was upset two weeks ago because he perceived that members of the news media weren’t respecting Western Kentucky, a Sun Belt Conference team that rebounded last week to win 32-31 at Kentucky.

Florida Atlantic also competes in the Sun Belt Conference. The Owls are coming off a 56-20 loss at Georgia, and a comment that Saban made Wednesday wasn’t exactly flattering toward the heavy underdog.

“We've got an opportunity to play a team on Saturday that I'm sure all those guys grew up wanting to play at a place like this,” he said. “And this is a great opportunity for them.”

First-year FAU coach Carl Pelini never said the word “Georgia” to his team until last Friday, and he was taking a similar approach this week.

“My biggest message to my players is that it doesn't matter what they do, it matters what we do,” Pelini said in his Tuesday press conference.

Alabama wide receiver Christion Jones said Monday that Alabama would prepare for Florida Atlantic as if the Tide were getting ready for No. 2 LSU.

“It doesn’t matter who it is, we’re just going out here to do what we’ve got to do to make ourselves better each week,” he said. “We’ve got out own standard we play to – an Alabama standard.”

The Tide has not had three consecutive shutouts since 1966. Today’s game matches a visitor that ranks No. 116 in the nation in scoring offense (14.7 ppg) against host that ranks third in the nation in scoring defense (4.67 ppg).

Saban said he wants his team to finish practice, finish games and play with more discipline and focus for a longer period.

“I asked the players, ‘Did you come here to make the team, or did you come here to make the team better?’” he said. “And, ‘Are you just here to contribute to yourself or are you here to contribute to everybody else?’”

He would have smiled if he had heard Kouandjio talk minutes later Wednesday about what he knows now that he didn’t know a month ago.

“You practice how you play,” Kouandjio said. “If you have a bad practice … you’re going to have a bad game.”